Tuesday, May 16, 2017

3 Ideas to End the Year Strong

Raise your hand if you've shown your students a movie towards the end of the school year.

I know lots of teachers who have relied on movies because they just didn't have the energy to do much else. I get it. The weather is getting warmer--it's hot inside your classroom.

"My kids are done!" ---I have heard teachers say. But as teachers, we have this awesome responsibility to educate our students the very best we can in the time that has been given to us. So, let's make it the best experience all the way til the last bell rings. End the year strong!

Whether you teach first grade, high school chemistry, or somewhere in between, here are 3 ideas you might try to end your school year as strong is you started it.

#1 Engage Them

When you give up, so do your students. Show them that you will stay engaged even into June. Engage them with hands-on projects, an end of year project-based learning unit, or an engineering design challenge. Engaging students through Making is one way to keep them thinking, collaborating, and creating throughout the school year. Check out my book STEAM Makers for more ideas to infuse creativity and innovation into your classroom.

Do your students get a little antsy this time of year? Keep them active! Plan a scavenger hunt around the school. Take the class for a walk around the building. Get outside and beautify your school grounds. Try some action-based learning.

Are students really having fun watching Finding Nemo or some other Disney classic? Throwing on a movie might make the day seem a little easier to you, but your students would rather learn about a new tool, play a game, use technology, plan a project, or talk about their interests. What can you do to have fun and keep kids going until the last bell?

Explore Common Sense Mediahttps://www.commonsensemedia.org/ and let students check out new apps or summer movie releases. They can blog about a new app they've tried or create their own movie trailers for a summer blockbuster.

Start summer vacation early by trying Google Expeditionshttps://edu.google.com/expeditions/ . Choose exotic locales or historical hot spots that the class may want to visit. Check out the amazing experience with Google Cardboard or other virtual reality tools.

So put down that VHS tape that you've shown for the last 10 years. Make the end of this year memorable. Use the last few days or weeks left with your students to do something amazing and keep them learning until the last bell.